mr. bill? and hard openings

[treeman 0]

what is a mr. bill? is it really possible to break your femur during a canopy opening? please teel me it aint so. that scares the hell outa me. is that cause they're jumpin' a canopy that is too small?

[Unstable 9]

A Mr. Bill is something experienced & careless skydivers do to look cool - It entails one jumper exiting and hanging on to the harness of another jumper as they deploy - If all goes well, the "Bill" will be able to hold onto the other jumper as his or her canopy opens, and the two can ride around for a while until the other person lets go and falls off. A very dangerous maneuver I wouldn't recommend to anyone. I've done four of them successfully with a Static-Line, and the last one scared me enough to vow to never try it again -

This post was edited because I can't spell or even write in complete sentencces....

=========Shaun ==========

[bigway 4]

i have read about broken femas caused from extremley hard openings. never seen it though. Do realise that you are involved in a risk taking sport and a broken fema is the least of your worries. Sure a broken fema would be bad but you are jumping out of a plane.
You need to realise the risks in the sport before you can be comfortable.
You might never break a bone in skydiving, you may never injure yourself, you may never see someone hit the deck. You must be aware though of what can happen and what can go wrong.
it might be a good thing that you are scared breaking your fema because then you will make sure you pack properly each time. I am scared of hitting the deck, so i go over my emergency procedures all the time when i am waiting for my load.
Sorry to put things like this. Do not let fear put you off the sport, it is good to be nervous, otherwise i would have to think you were crazy. I get the chills everytime i am on jump run.
I think it makes a safe skydiver though. ( as safe as i know how to be).
Take it easy and always think positive or things will go wrong.

.Karnage Krew Gear Store
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[treeman 0]

thank you for putting that into perspective bigway thats the way i like things. i'm a tree climber so risks are an everyday thing but i like to take calculated and well thought out risks if you know what i mean. and you could say i'm scared sh@#less every time i jump just not to the point where my head is in the clouds thats why i like it so much, very much, maybe too much. thank you for your time in educating me as i am very new to the sport. honorary scar carrying member of the further higher faster deader club thats what my parents say. they just dont get it thanx again

[bigway 4]

Mate, You will overcome the fear, and start to get out the door quicker and experiment with flying styles and landings. It is alot to take in when you first start. I have not jumped in a while and am now getting back in it. I am scared shitless for my first recurrency jump. Can't wait though to get it out of the way. Jsut keep asking questions when you have them but always, always take thee advice you get to your instructors before you belive it.

.Karnage Krew Gear Store
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[skyhighkiy 0]

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A Mr. Bill is something experienced & careless skydivers do to look cool

I disagree whole-heartedly.

Maybe it's true for you and some other skydivers, but I've definately not done any of the special maneuvers that we've done up high, to 'look cool'. I think it adds an element, same as ff does intead of regular belly flying, same as spinning points does to a regular 3-way falling down the tube and holding on the whole way.

It's just another one of those fun things you hear about before you start and want to try later on. like the rodeos or highbrids we've done. Yes, skydiving is inherently dangerous, every element you add to skydiving makes it more dangerous, and you definately can not predict what the outcome will be every time. However, if you proceed with different maneuvers (i.e. rodeos, highbrids, ff, progressively bigger RW, Mr.Bills) as your skills develop, you can drastically reduce the risk.

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the last one scared me enough to vow to never try it again

Yet I'm sure you don't regret doing your mr. bills, obviously you liked them enough to do four!
besides, I'm willing to bet that the mess up was within the last year or so, and am almost positive that later on down the road, when the shock wears off, you'll do it again.

treeman, Mr. Bills are more dangerous than just jumping out of a plane alone. Doing one doesn't necessarily make you careless....unless you do one before your skill level says you're "ready". As you progress in skydiving, you will, inevitably have a couple of "oh shit" experiences, to which you will hopefully come out with nothing more than a little extra adrenaline. EVERYONE in skydivinghas had or will have a couple. Then you will decide there's no way in hell you're doing that again, or that you need to slow the hell up and progress when you're ready.

as far as actual "mr. Bill" goes, it comes from the skit "Mr. Bill" if you haven't seen it, which I'm surprised many people haven't, do a search on the internet and it'll come up w/ a little claymation thing with a guy called Mr.Bill and the other character is "sluggo" who repeatedly demolishes and mutilates Mr. Bill. the person hanging on is Mr. Bill and teh person that deploys first is sluggo. MR. Bill is called so because of the "ripping your arms off" factor
and I was gonna write something else but I"m really hung over right now and can't remember, so I'm going back to bed, L8er guyz.

p.s. this was NOT Meant to flame anyone, I'm sorryif it came across that way, we're all family here.

BE THE BUDDHA!

[Frenchy68 0]

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Doing one doesn't necessarily make you careless....unless you do one before your skill level says you're "ready"

How do you judge that? When does someone have the skills level to do a Mr Bill?

"For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

[Randy_H 0]

I always thought that Mr. Bill was the cookie from Saturday Night Live untill I started skydiving! It kinda makes me feel dated to remember him!

Ohhhhhhhh Noooooooo!

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[skyhighkiy 0]

unfortunately, there will always be those people that think they're ready before they are to progress. Chances are, they're the 100 jump wonders I thought I was 50 or so jumps ago. But if you really ARE trying to make sure that your jump is as safe as it can be, rather than saying "I'm ready, I'm ready, I'mr eady, I'm ready" and searching for the answer you want. there are steps you can take to ensuring a "safe" (if there is such a place in skydiving) jump.

When asking my instructor about making any of the jumps we've done safe, his words were "Adding too many new elements to a jump will ensure your injury or death."

his advice was to break down the jump you're about to do in to its basic elements, become adequate in each of these individually and then start combining until, eventually, you can combine all the elements in to the planned jump (i.e. Mr. Bill)

example: Rodeo- 1. flying in the air with someone, 2. flying in close quarters with another person. 3. leaving the plane w/ another person and getting seperation 4. leaving the plane linked w/ another person and getting seperation 5. tracking 6. tracking away from other. 7. tracking away from others at a designated altitutde. 8. pulling clear of everyone else.

there are more elements, obviously, but that's kind of a general idea of how much goes in to something like that. Someone else pick up where I left off and complete my thought.

BE THE BUDDHA!

[Frenchy68 0]

Here's a video of a Mr Bill, from Wuza.com (French skydiving forum). It looks like they used a tandem rig. The "hanging" jumper is clearly rigged to the pilot during free fall and deployment.

"For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

[BETO74 0]

A Mr. Bill is something experienced & careless skydivers do to look cool
***

The only irresponsable or careless thing in doing Mr. bill is landing one.

http://web.mac.com/ac057a/iWeb/AC057A/H0M3.html